I hear what you are saying Severn. But to be fair to the author of the piece, he is talking about a trend that extends beyond the tv news to the entertainment industry in general (like Mel Gibson's "The Passion") and the tv entertainment industry specifically. He is talking about the #1 shows on tv (the CSI franchise), and the upcoming "Left Behind" tv movie, which is based on the "Left Behind" series of books about the fundamentalist Christian version of the apocalypse.

He isn't just talking about tv news, when he speaks of the culture of death. And the idea of the culture of death being embraced by the US political and business establishment isn't even new!